Friday, October 12, 2012

Fashion Victim UPDATE: PSP Annoying T-Shirt Tutorial Still Being Used

Two years ago I posted a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a truly wretched, irritating t-shirt graphic featuring skulls (optional),wings (NOT OPTIONAL), rococo-inspired shapes, old-timey typefaces or handwriting, and random pointless shit, all in drab, dull and ugly colors. At the time, I noted that this hideous style problem was already long in the tooth, and pointed to a "meta-ironic" version that suggested the trend was nearing a merciful end.

Alas.

One thing that gave me hope, after posting my tutorial, was a comment left by a clothing retailer, Fly Clothing, who bemoaned the cliché nature of these types of designs: "I can't tell you how many times we get emailed by a "new line of clothing" containing this same crap!" He continued, "we are receiving the same designs but with titles like, "Ass Kicker,"
"Knuckle UP," "No Mercy" BLAH BLAH BLAH."

Or how about Rebel Spirit? How's that for a name? Because now, all these years later, Fly Clothing, far from eschewing the "PSP Bad Shirt Tutorial" style, has embraced it more than ever, offering so many bad shirts which hew so closely to the tutorial, that you'll swear the tutorial was actually used as, you know, a tutorial. Here, for instance, is a shirt which features wings, rococo design elements, old-timey typefaces (on the back), and random pointless shit, all in drab, dull, ugly colors:

The name of the company is, yes, "Rebel Spirit." They also produced this awful thing, which lacks in the wings department, but makes up for it in the rococo and old-timey lettering department:

Here's an offering by another company, Xzavier Stone Free, which features skulls, wings, rococo-inspired shapes, old-timey typefaces, and random pointless shit, all in dull, ugly colors:

And so does this one, by Sanctify Clothing, but with the (optional) skull swapped out for a cross: